All but one of the 15 men who were arrested in Hawaii earlier this year for playing poker have had the charges dropped.

According to media reports, the 15 were arrested last February 9 after police on the island of Molokai, Hawaii, USA, raided a private residence and broke up a pair of poker games.

The raid occurred at the residence of Delfin R. Rabara, 38, who was one of the 15 arrested, media reports said.

In that raid, police seized about $10,000 in cash plus poker paraphernalia, media reports said.

The $10,000 included not just the monies on the poker tables but also all the monies in the poker players’ pockets, media reports said.

After seeing the arrestees twist in the wind for some six months, the local district attorney has now dropped gambling charges against all of them except for Rabara, media reports said.

Seeing their charges dropped were Crispulo Aki, Reynaldo C. Arteida, Pierson Bicoy-Calario, William C. Casino, Gerry Guzman, Claude Pule, Gordon Kapu, Pedro Venenciano, Alan Y. Uemura, Amador Lagazo, Randy Fujimoto, James J. Blair, Shannon Crivello and Daniel Juario, media reports said.

Those 14 range in age from 21 to 58, media reports said.

Rabara’s charges–promoting gambling and possessing gambling devices–remained because he hosted the illegal poker games, media reports said.

For those charges, Rabara was fined a total of $500 and placed on one year’s probation, media reports said.

All forms of gambling are illegal in Hawaii, where there are no casinos or racetracks or even a state lottery.

Hawaii and Utah are the only states in the USA where there is no legal gambling of any kind.

(E-mail Tom Somach at [email protected].)